Day 50 (The DMT Series Book 2) (23 page)

The soldier put down his weapon on the ground, and bowed his head. “Please forgive me, Master Cody. How can I make amends?”

“I forgive you my child. I forgive all of you,” Cody said, straightening his body. “I told you this would happen. Now if anyone else doubts that I am the True Prophet please step forward and you will feel my wrath.”

No one stepped forward. Instead most of the soldiers dropped their weapons to the ground and took off into the jungle. A few remained though. Without exception they all fell to their knees. Bowing their heads to the Prophet returned, pleading for forgiveness.

“Take the False Prophet’s body to the back of the temple. There is already a grave prepared. Throw his body into the grave, and cover it with dirt. Do it now,” Cody ordered.

The soldiers nodded, before rushing to grab Alejandro’s lifeless body.

“What just happened?” the MKULTRA agent asked.

“Something went wrong, terribly wrong,” James Carter said. He was staring at the screen in front of him. Instead of Cody collapsing to the ground, it seemed like Alejandro had just died. This changed everything. This totally ruined Carter’s plan.

“Get the President on the line. It looks like we need that approval immediately.”

Adam, Hugo, Cameron and Drecker rushed to Cody’s side, as the soldiers carried Alejandro’s body away.

“We’ll go and make sure the body is buried deep enough,” Adam said, before taking Hugo with him.

“What just happened?” Cameron asked, pressing a hand on Cody’s wound to stop the bleeding.

“Alejandro’s forty-nine days were just up,” Cody said.

“He’s taken DMT?”

Cody nodded. “The day I escaped. I was able to get the time of death and resurrection from one of his men. Unfortunately I was a couple of minutes off.”

Drecker smiled. “I’m glad I understood your message correctly. It took me a few hours to convince Adam that your profile picture was the real message, not the post.”

“I’m glad too,” Cody replied.

“The profile picture? Ohh, now I get it. The prophet eating a plant, it is Alejandro taking DMT, isn’t it? And the numbers, four, the Chinese number for death, and forty-nine, the day Alejandro would die for a second time.”

Cody nodded. “I always loved drawing and scribbling when I was a kid. It was one of those things that drove my dad insane.”

Drecker laughed. “It didn’t drive me insane, Cody. I just never understood how it ever would become useful.”

“Well, it came in handy today.”

“That it did,” Drecker smiled, as Cody let out another moan. He was still in great pain.

“Don’t worry, Cody. I should be able to heal you, or at least keep you strong until we can get you to a hospital,” Cameron said.

Cody shook his head. “I don’t want to, Cameron. Alejandro was right about one thing. I do miss it. I do want to go back.”

“You can’t leave me, Cody,” Dr Drecker cried. “You’re all I have left.”

“I’m sorry, dad. But it’s already too late. You have to let me go this time.” Cody held up his left hand, revealing the dark blood covering his fingers. Alejandro had known exactly where to stick the knife. He had made sure Cody would receive the most painful death imaginable, a lethal abdominal stab. Cody had less than an hour to live, and they were in the middle of the jungle, with the closest hospital at least a six-hour trek away.

“The president is not accepting your call, Director.”

“What are you saying? Did you explain that this is a matter of national security?”

“I did. I quoted the executive order you gave me. But the call was still declined.”

“What is happening?” James Carter shouted, banging the palm of his hand on the table. “They’re getting away. If we don’t do something right now, they will get away.” Carter’s line of thought was broken by a loud bang as the door of the control room burst open.

A flash grenade rolled along the floor until it came to a rest in front of the tip of his right shoe. Then the entire room was covered in bright light.

“FBI. Get down on the floor. Get down on the floor now!” Those were the last words James Carter heard before a blast caused a ringing sound in his ear that shut the rest of the noise out.

“What happens now?” Hugo asked after having witnessed Cody’s followers unload a few tons of dirt on top of the cheap wooden casket they had just put Alejandro’s limp body into.

“What happens now? I don’t know, Hugo. Tomorrow is a new day. Anything can happen tomorrow. That’s the marvellous thing about what we call life. To us mere mortals, it is Day Fifty every day. We should just be glad we wake up. And then we should make the most of it.”

“Day fifty?” Hugo asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Adam said.

63

Cody put away the crutches and made the last few steps onto the stage by himself. He steadied his body against the speaker’s chair, and lifted his head to face the camera positioned in front of him. He had to give Alejandro credit. Alejandro had always been a master at creating a spectacle.

The temple provided an ideal background for what Cody was about to tell his followers. Most of them weren’t the misfits of society that mainstream media had portrayed them to be – they were just frustrated young souls, longing to belong to something or someone. Cody had been the same once. The first time he travelled to Argentina he had been one of those lost souls. And in Ayahuasca he had found what he had been looking for. For a moment he had felt part of something greater than himself, greater than his family, greater than society, greater than everything.

For once in his life he hadn’t felt like a failure, he hadn’t felt the weight on his shoulders to always perform, to do what his parents expected of him, to do what society expected of him.

To get a job, to buy a house, to borrow money and pay it back.

To be something he wasn’t.

But the feeling hadn’t lasted.

Cody had returned from his holiday of experimenting with drugs and realised that he was still alone in the world. What had frightened him the most, though, wasn’t what would happen the day he died. That wasn’t the real reason he had been seeking the truth.

What he had been afraid of was to have to rely on himself.

He had wanted an escape from the individualism of society.

He had wanted an escape from expectations.

For that brief moment of hallucinations he had felt truly free for the first time in his life.

All his disappointments in life had been erased. He had understood that it wasn’t his fault that he hadn’t performed better at school, or gotten a nice paying job as most of his peers had.

He had been part of something bigger than salary packages and university degrees.

And then it had been all over.

Like it would soon be all over for the two million viewers following the live broadcast of his speech.

Alejandro inhaled deeply, before coughing wildly in his attempt to exhale. His body shivered like a leaf in the wind. He knew the feeling. He had felt the exact same feeling just a month and a half earlier – the day he resurrected from the dead. He had been stuck inside a freezer back then. Now he was somewhere very different. Where, he had no idea.

He attempted to move his arms, but he couldn’t even lift them more than a couple of inches above his chest. Something was blocking his hands. There was something on top of him.

It was pitch black and difficult to breathe. Small lines of dirt were dripping from above, making tiny pyramids on his chest. He attempted to cry out
HELP
, but he was barely able to make a sound. He spit dirt, only to feel it dribble down the side of his mouth.

Then suddenly he realised where he was.

“Welcome, children.

My fellow children of the universe.

I am truly honoured that so many of you, from all around the world, have taken the time to follow this very special broadcast. My friends tell me we have more than two million viewers watching today.

That is amazing. Truly amazing.

Let’s start with the obvious: The reports of my death are, as you can see with your own eyes, slightly exaggerated. I am very much still alive.

I can’t, however, conceal the fact that we have had a traitor living in our midst for some time. It is with deep regret I must inform you that Alejandro Vasques, a man most of you know has been one of my close associates since the founding of Codyism, attempted to assassinate me a few weeks back. He also initiated a smear campaign to blacken my name and reputation.

And why did he do all this?

To gain power?

To gain material wealth?

To get back at all those he felt had caused him injustice over the years?

Yes, yes and yes.

Alejandro was motivated by all those drives Codyism opposes.

Alejandro is now dead. He died earlier today. But his actions made me think about what Codyism has become.

Has it become what I wanted it to become when I first started out?

Codyism was established almost by accident. As you know I died and resurrected three years ago. And when I returned to life, I returned with a gift - the gift to heal the sick.

But that wasn’t my only gift. My biggest gift was that I had experienced death, I had seen what it was like, and I had survived to tell the tale.

You have to remember that I wasn’t at all special before this happened. If anything, I was unspecial. I was below average in almost everything I ever tried in my life. I am sure I was a huge disappointment to my parents, but still I, mediocre me, was chosen to receive this incredible gift of experiencing death and living to tell the tale.

Although I had never before craved attention I realised that this was a gift too valuable to keep to myself. So I decided to share my story, to share my gift, and over a short year I wrote the Holy Book, which is based on my visions and experiences during those three days in the afterlife.

And thus Codyism was born.

An alternative to the traditional religions, which I felt only preached about how you were supposed to live your life.

Codyism was not so much about how you should behave or not behave, it was about what I, an atheist, had experienced when I was dead.

And the book left it up to you, my readers, to interpret those experiences.

It only came to my knowledge a few weeks ago, though, that the Holy Book I wrote, and the Holy Book you all have been reading, are not one and the same.

Alejandro Vasques, who was only supposed to edit the book and organise the printing, made the Holy Book unrecognisable in the process.

It pains me to inform you that you haven’t been reading my words at all. You haven’t been reading about my experiences when I was in the land of the dead. Instead you have been reading the words of a power-hungry man who used those words to control you and transform Codyism into a money-grabbing organisation with no regard for your happiness or wellbeing.

I have come to learn that we charge you exorbitant amounts of money, so that you can feel closer to the universe. But you shouldn’t have to pay for that. It should be free.

I have come to learn that we demand you cut ties with your family so that you can focus solely on Codyism. But your family is what will bring you closer to the universe, not Codyism.

Codyism is a fraud.

I am a fraud.

You all believe I am a Prophet, the chosen one.

Well, I am not.

My death, and my subsequent resurrection, were the result of a botched science experiment, conducted by my own father.

And that science experiment ends today.

You all believe I am immortal.

Well today is the day you will be proven wrong.

Twenty minutes ago I was stabbed by Alejandro Vasques.

That is the reason he is now dead. I killed him.

But before that, he got me good.

I will not make it.

And I will not resurrect in another three days.

But I will leave this place knowing that there is something else out there.

I have been there.

I don’t know what it is. I don’t think I’m supposed to know.

But I’m not afraid, and neither should you be.

If you long to belong to something, you don’t have to join Codyism or another religion or cult to satisfy that need.

Look to the left of you, look to the right of you.

You are part of something.

You are part of humanity – the result of billions of years of evolution.

You are part of something very special indeed.”

“There is a reason Alejandro Vasques instructed you to bring a knife to this gathering here today. It wasn’t to break blood. It was because he wanted you all to kill yourselves.”

Cody looked at the faces of the followers in front of him. There were only about sixty to eighty people attending the live event, but they all looked like they were in total shock. Everything they had believed in for the last few years had been revealed to be a lie, a cruel hoax.

“That’s right. Alejandro Vasques wanted you all to commit suicide.

And Alejandro Vasques is the prime example of everything that has gone wrong with Codyism over the last few years.

We have started to alienate people from other religions – claiming Codyism is the only true way.

The fact is that there is no true way.

I was dead for three days – and I did witness some very strange and beautiful things those days my mind was separated from my body.

But others have done the same. And they didn’t have the exact same experiences as I did.

Now who am I to claim I have the monopoly on the truth?

I don’t. Nobody does.

Codyism was just supposed to teach you to feel part of something bigger than yourself.